Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Publishers (But were Afraid to Ask)

Josh Lanyon did a guest post on Jessewave's blog as part of her "Ins and Outs of M/M Romance" series, Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Publishers (But were Afraid to Ask). Josh Lanyon is one of the best known voices of m/m fiction, for the Adrien English series among other great books, as well as the author of Man, Oh Man! Writing M/M Fiction for Kinks and Cash, which I have and which has a lot of great info.

As Josh says right off, Before we delve into what to look for in a publishing partner — and what to avoid — I want to point out that this post relates to niche publishing with small and indie presses. Much of what I’m discussing here is a non-issue in mainstream publishing. Running Press and Carina aside, m/m is still dominated by small presses and niche publishers, so that's where the focus of the article is. That said, most of what Josh talks about is something even folks aiming at New York should at least be aware of.

Lots of good stuff here, and I'm not just saying that because she quoted me. [duck] Seriously, check it out.

The advent of the internet has helped me eliminate the middlemen in the art world (at least to some extent.) I wish it were as effective for writers (although it does offer some unique opportunities for exposure, at least!)

Lana -- we're getting there, but there are still some roadblocks. [nod] I know a few writers who are doing very well self-publishing their work, but they're all people who had a successful career under one or more publisher's imprints first, so they had that audience built already. I don't have enough of an audience to successfuly self-publish, despite the much higher return per book.

There are definitely more viable options now than there were in the past, though. And publishing is changing so fast; it's hard to even imagine what the industry as a whole will look like in another decade.

I hadn't thought about what the internet meant for artists, but yeah, it does make sense that it would've helped people on your side of the room too. [nod]

Charles -- exactly. And if you're starting from zero, you're going to drown unless you come up with one of those one-in-a-billion break-out cases.

From what I've seen, the trick -- no matter how you're publishing, actually -- is to get above some critical mass of readers, such that so long as you keep producing good work, there'll be enough word of mouth to keep your stuff selling. Getting to that point, and I wish I could put a number on it, is the tough part.

About Me

My name is Angie and I'm a writer living in Seattle, WA with my husband. I publish science fiction, fantasy and crime stories under Angela Penrose, and romance and erotica under Angela Benedetti. I pretty much live at the computer, either writing or online or both. My schedule is chaotically variable, so I might be awake or asleep at any given moment. It's not all bad; writing at 2am when it's quiet is actually pretty cool.